Cigar Box Mandolin

[purpleorange]

Hi,

Can anyone give me a little advice of how to build a cigar box mandolin?

I have a mandolin neck from a banjo and I am planning to build the CBM around that.

I think the main issues it to try to stop everything collapsing with the tension of the strings.

I am looking for an acoustic instrument, a resonator would be cool but probably a lot more work. Maybe just the loading bridge on the cigar box will give enough sound for noodling in the house.

Should I be looking at options to try to extend the neck to make a straight through neck for the box?

Any advice or ideas would be welcome as this i my first project.

There are a few picks of the neck below.

Attachments:

[pete1951]

The main problem will be making stopping the box bending. Most CBG have some sort of neck stick a bit like a resonator or an old style banjo . Your pics haven’t come up yet. Will make some more observations then.
Pete

[purpleorange]

Thanks Pete, the tension for mandolin seems to be a problem.

I had a box in mind but after finding it it seems too big, solid and heavy for this. Would probably be more suited to a resonator guitar type instrument.

Attachments:

[pete1951]

With a lightweight box of the right size I might do something like this,




The top of the box could be thinned down ( if you have a router) . Old Cigar boxes were often made of thin solid mahogany (or similar) and would give a pretty good acoustic tone, new thick ply ones are a bit more of a challenge to get them to make a sound loud enough to be heard over a conventional instrument.

Pete

You could use a resonator, but it’s a lot more work.
There are some pics of CB instruments on this section that I put together using 6” Tricone cones. You can buy uke cones and cover plates on line that are just wide enough for mandolin string spacing, but I think you would have to keep the break angle down.

[purpleorange]

Thanks for taking the time to reply and do the drawing. I was singing of a similar approach with a straight through neck.

I prefer your approach as I am just bolting the neck on and won't be causing any permanent damage if the CBM goes wrong.

I came across ham tin mandolins today, they look cool but I don't think they will sound great.